No Means No
by idioticonion
Summary: Barney is accused of raping Robin. This a single, fractured story told in one hundred drabbles going back and forwards in time. Spoilers up to The Goat. Written for the HIMYM DarkFic Livejournal Comm. Warning: Very dark
1. Chapter 1

PART ONE

93. Consent

Barney looks up from his desk to see two cops standing in the doorway of his office. He's a little surprised to see that particular flavour of law enforcement officer at GNB. The FBI, yes. The CIA twice. Even the ATF on one memorable occasion. But two regular flat-foots?

"Barney Stinson?"

"Yep?"

Then he realises.

"You need to come with us, sir. I'm afraid that you are under arrest…"

He swallows hard. The twin scratches on his cheek condemn him. His bruises. The bite mark.

"…for the…"

Her bruises.

"…rape of Robin Scherbatsky…"

"No-" He protests. It wasn't like that.

1. Tears

"You've got to talk about it honey," Lily says, biting her bottom lip.

Robin is crying. Hard nosed, hard-drinking, Robin is crying. Not sobbing, but the tears are creeping down her face, over the livid bruise that's already purpling her cheek. "Who did this, baby?" Lily continues. "You've got to tell someone! Who-"

"Barney." Robin blurts the word, making Lily jump. After all, her best friend just sat in silence for the last half hour, not responding, not explaining, just looking…

…broken.

Scared.

So not Robin.

"Barney?" Lily almost says, but Robin's covering her face with her hands. "Oh god…"

44. Handcuffs

Each circle of metal snaps around his wrists. The cop cuffs him and leads him quickly through the maze of offices, past the 20th floor conference room and over to the elevator.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. The other workers barely pay him any attention. Bilson frowns at him as if to say - "Unless you get twenty years, buddy, you're not worth my time."

Barney doesn't look at anybody.

He keeps his eyes fixed firmly on the floor and the metal feels so cold and heavy around his wrists that it burns him.

43. Guilty

Marshall gets the phone call he never thought he'd get.

"I'm- I'm-" Barney's voice seems very small and very far away. Small and pathetic.

"Barney, man…" Marshall massages his temples. He's not unsympathetic. He's not a cruel man. But- "Barney, I've seen you do some terrible things. But this... This, dude…" He shakes his head. "I can't help you. I'm sorry, but I can't!"

He replaces the phone gently in the receiver.

He saw Robin. He sat with Robin while she talked to the police. He heard her stuttered, garbled words, heard her painful silences.

How could he help Barney?

8. Fear

Robin lies in bed in their bedroom and Lily curls up on the couch, her arms crossed over her chest.

She can't leave Robin alone.

No one has explained to Robin that Barney's been arrested. As far as they can tell, Robin's in the middle of a pretty major breakdown right now.

Lily salutes, tears in her eyes. "Major Breakdown," she mutters.

She's afraid for her friend.

She's seen the bruises, the scars, the way Robin flinches when anyone touches her. Since the police, Robin's not said a word to anyone.

Jesus, how long has this been going on?

Jesus!

17. Held

They charge Barney on a Monday. He tells himself that he's not looking for them - his friends. He tells himself he doesn't notice that none of them turn up. He doesn't listen to the judge. Doesn't hear the words they say. Doesn't hear the accusations.

He can't get everything straight in his mind right now; can't process. They put him in a cell on his own.

On the way out of court he swears he sees Ted. Just for a second, catches his eye.

But he can't read his friend's expression - condemnation or pity, he just can't tell.

9. Fists

Robin comes at him, her fingers curled into claws, her face split until an ugly sneer. Barney defends himself, his elbow hitting her face as her nails score his cheek.

"You bastard!" She yells at him, sobbing, panting, tears in her eyes. Her hands are balled into fists. She's a mess; he thought he was making this better but it's worse. He grabs Robin, throws her onto the bed, one hand snaking under her shirt and grabbing a handful to rip it off.

"NO!" She screams in his ear, then she sobs.

And for once, for fucking once, he stops.

21. Arrogant

They put Barney in a cell with a weasel-y little dude. He's pretty sure he'll be gutted and fucked within the week unless he lets someone make him his bitch.

So he plays another card.

Barney's a gambler, it's in his heart, it's in his blood. He walks in line in the cafeteria, scopes out the biggest, hardest motherfucker in the joint and goes crazy-eyes on him. Throws a tray of boiling oil at the dude and looks him right in the eye while doing it.

Point blank.

Barney's gonna be here for months. No one will touch him now.

27. Bruises

When Robin comes home, Ted doesn't treat her carefully. He takes her to the bar, he buys her tacos and they sit and watch Predator together.

Robin doesn't talk much but that's not new. It sort-a feels like things are back to normal.

Until Robin takes a shower.

Ted swallows when he sees the mottled colour decorating the skin of her back and shoulders. Thing is, he's seen the bruises before.

Thing is, he tried to pretend that he didn't know what was going on.

Thing is, he could have stopped it all.

Just what kind of friend is he?

47. Heartsick

Robin's leg brushes his. Barney doesn't look as she gets up to go to the restroom. She stops half way to talk to a friend and he ducks out of the booth, circles around and waits just inside the door.

When she opens it, he grabs her and drags her into a stall. He's not gentle when he rips off her panties. When he fucks her, one hand over her mouth, she tries to bite his fingers. It's so real and raw, he comes like a freight train.

After, they go sit down and carry on as if nothing's happened.

2. Jealous

Lily watches as Barney hits on the fifth girl that night. Robin's scowling the entire time, her nose wrinkled, her eyes flashing.

When Barney gets to first base with the girl, Robin gets to her feet. Lily watches intently as the woman smirks, her eyes following Barney as he heads to the bar.

Robin snarls and darts over to Barney's conquest.

Lily never discovers what Robin whispers in that poor girl's ear but she looks like she's about to throw up and she darts out the door quicker than a ferret up a fire escape.

Robin sneers in vicious triumph.


	2. Chapter 2

PART TWO

48. Heat

The bright winter sun makes his eyeballs ache. Cigarette clamped between his lips, Barney escapes his office for a few minutes between meetings, taking deep, hungry gulps of smoke and freon.

Then Robin's standing there.

"Gimme a toke?" She says, smirking, like nothing's happened, like she didn't-

He grabs at her outstretched hand, her shirt sleeve sliding back to reveal the ring of dark bruises that encircle her wrist.

Bruises not made by him.

He jabs the burning cigarette into the flesh of her arm and sees her eyes go wide with shock. She flinches.

He makes her cry.

Good.

49. Hopeless

Lily's their biggest cheerleader.

She watches Robin under a microscope, noting every minute glimmer of interest she shows in Barney; silently cheering from the sidelines every time her best friend spontaneously decides to sit next to the poor guy.

She watches as Barney's burgeoning love sours to cynicism, as the darkness consumes him, as he takes his frustration out on inanimate objects - walls, household appliances, even the curb.

She watches while Barney's hope dies, unable to intervene.

Eventually his secret comes out, but by then Lily suspects it's too late for him. Eight months too late.

She's not wrong.

77. Tied

It's all about power. Robin doesn't like this. She's not comfortable being restrained.

Usually he takes her hard, rough; it's spontaneous, they even tell themselves it's unplanned. Easier than dealing with what's happening. Easier than talking things through.

Neither of them likes being pinned down.

She objects - vocally, strenuously, but her no's turn to yes's in his ears; her pleas turn to demands.

Afterwards she storms out. She tells him he's an idiot. She uses even more colorful language.

"Scherbatsky, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" He asks, grinning.

"Fuck you," she barks, before slamming the door.

81. Walls

In movies, you scratch the number of days you've been in the joint on the wall of your prison cell. In movies, you cut away at the cement between the bricks, make a gap, then cover the evidence of with a poster of a hot chick.

In real life, you lie back on your bunk, and you squeeze your dick and you pump it because all you are left with is your memories.

Barney knows he's a bad man.

It doesn't feel like the walls are there to keep him imprisoned. It feels like they're protecting him from the world.

40. Flirtation

Ted knows something has changed. It's not Barney. Barney's exactly the same. Every day he gets more and more outrageous, trying to attract Robin's attention, trying to push the envelope, stretch the boundaries of what's allowed.

Nope, it's Robin that's changed.

Did Barney tell her how he feels? Is that why Robin's become so cruel, so cutting? Is this some kind of rejection?

But Barney doesn't seem to mind or even notice.

It's just the rest of them that suffer.

Marshall shifts uncomfortably and meets Ted's eye. This isn't flirtation. It's an execution.

At Robin's next comment, they both wince.

68. Refusal

She says no.

But she always says no.

It's a game.

Robin's twisting in his grip so Barney pins her wrists above her head and knees her thighs apart.

"You want me to fuck you bareback?" He asks. He keeps his voice soft, low. Controlled.

She shakes her head once and her eyes go very wide.

"You wanna get pregnant?" He grins. "You know you couldn't stop me."

Her breathing is erratic, her chest rising and falling as he tugs at her skirt.

He laughs and lets her go, rolls on a condom.

"That wasn't funny!" She snaps at him.

76. Thunder

Lightning spikes through the sky, illuminating Ted's bedroom through the curtains. Thunder rolls. Ted wakes to find Robin standing at his door, wrapped up in a bathrobe, her eyes wide and dark and frightened like a small child's.

"Ted… Can I…?" She asks him, scurrying into his room and leaping into his bed before his sleep-addled brain can catch up with what's happening.

He feels… something. Gnawing away at him through the layers of exhaustion and sadness and unreality he's felt for weeks now.

When she touches him he jerks away and then he realises.

What he feels is suspicion.

52. Lace

She's so wet.

The black lace panties are wet through, not just damp, and she's grinding herself on to his fingers, her cheeks flushed scarlet, her lips wet and parted, her rosy nipples hard as pebbles where his hand is shoved down her bra.

They barely bother to get undressed when there's a bedroom involved, let alone here, in the kitchen.

Barney hears the door open and Ted's call and he snatches his hand away, leaving Robin hanging, leaving her to pull herself together, straighten her shirt, her skirt.

When he looks at her there's real hatred in her eyes.

41. Forgotten

Marshall sits alone at the booth.

Ted called five minutes ago to say he's going to be late and Lil's at some parent teacher thing, but Barney promised him faithfully, absolutely faithfully, that he'd be there to celebrate his promotion.

Marshall snorts, taking a sip of beer.

Since when have Barney's promises meant anything? He's probably met a bimbo at work and he's having sex with her in the cleaning closet right now.

But… but… there was a time when Barney wasn't so flaky. When he put his friends first and his conquests second.

And where the hell is Robin?

50. Ice

It hurts.

It fucking hurts her he can tell.

Barney rolls the ice cube over her clit, holding it there until it numbs her, until she's shaking, a single tear squeezed out between her tightly shut eyelids to trickle down her cheek.

Robin bites her lip, refusing to cry out, even when he mounts her, pounding her right through the fucking mattress. He teases himself, slowing just at the edge and moves the ice cube to her nipple. He's pulsing inside her, hard as a rock.

She opens her eyes and screams just before he jabs the needle right through.


	3. Chapter 3

PART THREE

10. Liar

Ted goes to visit Barney.

He's shocked by his friend's appearance. Always whip-thin, Barney now looks positively skeletal. His friend's perfectly trimmed hair is longer and curls at the neck. His fingernails are blackened and ragged.

And his eyes…

Barney's blue eyes are oppressive and shadowed, like the depths of the ocean. Ted can feel Barney's stare weighing him down. Crushing him.

"Did you do it?" Ted asks him.

"Yes," Barney answers. A simple answer to a simple question.

As if any of this is simple.

"Are you even sorry?" Ted pleads with him.

"No," Barney breathes.

But he's lying.

91. Sick

The first time Barney does it, it scares the crap out of him.

They're shouting at each other, Robin's voice yelling instead of whining and his own is rising to match hers. Then suddenly they're kissing ferociously and he's slamming her against the wall and fucking her.

Just before he does, she tries to push him away. He forces her back, guides his dick between her legs while she struggles.

She comes, so that makes it okay.

But after, he throws up in the trash outside.

Next time he does it, not so much nausea.

Third time, none at all.

100. Blood

It takes Barney longer than he's proud of to realise how turned on Robin is by violence. The crucial moment comes about a month after Ted's thirty-first birthday.

Lily's being hounded by some guy at the bar and Marshall's not there. Ted's feeling awkward but mutters something about Lil being able to take care of herself.

Barney sees the sneer on Robin's face.

Without thinking (should be his middle name) he gets up, drags the guy outside and deals with him.

A half-hour later Robin jumps him as he emerges from the restroom. She's kisses his split knuckles, tasting blood.

31. Crash

"When did this all start?" Lily asks Barney, after his shocking, heartfelt confession.

"When the bus hit me," he says, casually mentioning that terrible event as if it means nothing.

"You mean, your life flashed before your eyes and you realised you were in love with Robin?" Lily asks him. "That's so sweet!" She claps her hands together, practically squee-ing with excitement until she sees his dark expression. "Not sweet?" She asks, faltering.

"I guess it was at the time," he mumbles.

"Barney?"

"Never mind. So, are you going to help me out or what?"

She should have known then.

35. Disaster

Marshall doesn't know how to help.

He wants to help. His entire life, all he's ever wanted to do is help people. But he has no idea what to even say to Robin. By god, what must it even feel like to have been raped by your best friend? Your boyfriend? Was Barney her boyfriend? Why didn't he know these things?

The group has disintegrated. Ted is distant. Lily cries herself to sleep, blaming herself for encouraging Barney. She shouts and screams at him sometimes and all Marshall can do is stand and take it.

He'd never hit a woman.

79. Tremble

Robin's chest is heaving, her eyes wide and shell-shocked. When Barney trails a finger across her newly pierced nipple she trembles beneath him.

"Does it hurt?" He asks her.

Gently, carefully (so much more carefully than when he fucked her) Barney pulls at the tiny silver ring until Robin arches her back. Her cry is enough to get him hard again.

"Does it hurt?" He growls.

"Y-yes…" She finally admits, grinding herself against his leg where he kneels over her.

He reaches over to retrieve the tube of lube that's on her bedside table. "Next time it'll be your pussy…"

58. Memory

Ted holds a magazine but he hasn't read a word in the last hour.

He's remembering…

A conversation he had with Robin a month ago, about a news report on her old show, Metro News One. A guy had got acquitted of sexual assault and Ted had been pretty sure that Robin would have shared his outrage.

But her reaction surprised and disturbed him.

"You don't know all the facts, Teddy boy," she'd said vaguely. "No doesn't always mean no."

"Er, usually it does!" He'd said.

"Not always," she'd countered, and her smile had totally creeped him out. Big Time.

42. Gift

Robin buys Barney a dildo for his 34th birthday. He doesn't really get it, as gifts go. He doesn't even do birthdays and she never bought him anything before they'd started fucking.

Does this mean they're in a relationship now?

She looks at him askance and she seems pissed, angry even, when he doesn't enthuse over the present.

So he slams her up against the wall and fucks her up the ass with it, over and over, until she begs him to stop.

He leaves a bruise the size of an orange on her buttock.

It's his present to her.

83. Beaten

Lily sits with Robin before and after her medical exam. She tries not to cry when Robin holds on to her hand so painfully tight while the police doctor sticks a cold metal gizmo between her legs.

There are bruises mottling her best friend's thighs. She can even make out a hand print shape.

Lily forces herself to concentrate on the colors - brown, black, purple and red, yellowy-green. So many colors when flesh gets damaged. Like a rainbow flag of hurt. Like a sign saying "Look, Ma! I've been beaten."

Lily wonders why she didn't see the signs before?

97. Gun

"Do it."

There's a novel in those two words. There's a world of meaning. It's an order, it's angry and it's very, very cold.

Robin's hand shakes where she presses the muzzle of the gun against Barney's temple.

"I said DO IT!" He screams at her.

Yes, do it. Put him out of his misery. Send him to hell.

He rips the gun from her hand and shoves it into his own mouth, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"NO!" She shouts, reaching for him.

She should have done it. He's a rabid dog. She should have fucking put him down.


	4. Chapter 4

PART FOUR

3. Unfaithful

In the end, it isn't about his infidelity. It's Robin's that finally destroys them.

After all this time, after all her doubts and all her resistance, Robin still has the power to surprise and shock Barney. When he discovers that she went home with another guy, when she blithely explains it to him, he plays it cool to her face and stays away from her for days.

It isn't exactly as though they've talked about this, have made rules or asked for commitment.

The pain simmers inside him for weeks until it breaks through the surface, completely out of control.

98. Choke

They are eating Chinese food from a new place around the corner from Ted and Robin's apartment. Marshall's lips twitch into a smirk when Barney carefully tucks a napkin under his chin.

They watch National Geographic for a while and laugh at the mating hyenas. One of them begans to whoop and holler and scream at such a level at that Ted is forced to turn the volume down.

"Wow," Barney comments. "That's exactly the same noise that Robin makes when she comes."

Marshall chokes on his noodles. Ted laughs nervously.

Robin elbows Barney in the ribs, glaring at him.

4. Insult

Ted tries to hold James back at the door.

"Where is she? The lying whore? Where the fuck is she?" Barney's brother rages. James is a strong guy - muscular - an ex-football player, and Ted's, we'll, he's Ted.

James storms into the living room. "What have you got to say for yourself, bitch?" James screams at Robin as she emerges from her bedroom. Ted is still trying to hang on to him.

Robin doesn't speak, she simply pulls her bathrobe apart and lets James take a good look at her body.

Ted's naked lady noise dies in his throat.

15. Kiss

Robin kisses the base of Barney's dick, her nose pressing against his thigh as her mouth trails under his erection and her lips touch each smooth, freshly waxed testicle. Her tongue dances over them before she returns her attention back to his cock, which pulses and quivers with each swirl of her tongue. Then, finally, she kisses the velvet head - softly, almost tenderly - before looking up at him.

She's got such big, blue, knowing eyes.

And it's a half-hour and a hundred kisses before she finally lets him come. By that time he'd do anything she asked. Anything.

24. Alone

The weasel-guy looks Barney up and down and just laughs. "You won't last five seconds in this place," he drawls in an accent so thick that you could use it to make soup. "Every guy's alone in the joint."

Barney's scared, okay! It's not like he hasn't thought of looking for a way out - to escape his fate. Not a dig-a-tunnel or scale-the-walls style of escape. Nope, the kind of get-away that involves a shard of glass across the throat, or knotted sheets and a bed frame.

Every guy's alone with himself in here. And that fact terrifies him.

14. Love

Lily watches carefully as Barney curls his fingers protectively around Robin's arm at the bar. They may not say anything out loud, but his body language says everything. Barney's in love and Lily's beginning to suspect that Robin might be too.

It's not as though they've been particularly discrete with all the sneaking-off-to-have-sex they've been doing lately. Even Marshall's started mentioning it out loud.

Robin always blushes and giggles.

Barney just raises one perfectly manicured eyebrow, like he's holding on to the best, most depraved secret in the world.

When Lily asks him about it, all she gets is "Please!".

69. Scar

There's a scar on Robin's lower arm that she is being forced to cover up with long sleeves. It's unmistakably a cigarette burn. When the weather gets warm on Wednesday afternoon, it amuses Barney to watch Robin sweltering while everyone else rolls up their sleeves.

She deserves it.

He knows she deserves punishment, but not in the way that she thinks she does.

Despite no strings, despite no "thing" between them, she should never have gone looking for this with someone else. The few bruises Barney gives Robin are nothing to what this other dude's done.

No one deserves that.

55. Leather

It starts out as a joke. First, Robin says no, when she means yes. Then she's moaning while Barney spanks her hard enough to leave a mark.

She tells him that she's turned on by leather and he assumes she's kidding. But buying the vest and cuffs and the mask had been impulsive. He was just kidding.

But the first time they use them takes him down a dark, dark road. There's disappointment in her eyes when he tells her "Never again."

"If you won't, I'll find someone who will. A real man!" Robin snaps.

He thinks (hopes) she's kidding.

59. Moon

The moon is the only light in Barney's cell right now. He hasn't changed in forty-eight hours. He's still wearing the suit they arrested him in.

And so, okay, It's not strictly his fault. Not this last time. But isn't he fundamentally to blame? Didn't he start all this?

Didn't he fuck Robin while she begged him to stop?

Countless times.

Didn't he hurt her?

Yes. Yes he did.

Shouldn't he be punished for that? Isn't it wrong?

Now that's the million dollar question. But he guesses that's for the judge to decide. He's already lost everything that he loves.

19. Music

The piece of classical music they can hear is "Death and the Maiden" by Schubert. It's always creeped Robin out, ever since watching the play of the same name in a tiny theatre when she still lived in Canada.

It's one of the few things personal, private things that Barney knows about her.

Then suddenly she's crying.

"Oh god, this is wrong, so wrong…" She's trembling in his arms. "What am I doing to myself. Shit shit shit!"

What's she doing to herself?

What about what she's doing to him?

"Ted's right Barney," she whispers. "No should always mean no."


	5. Chapter 5

PART FIVE

16. Secret

Ted knows.

Okay, maybe Ted's just really suspicious.

This is a scary, out of control place where if even one person knows, then it's like Robin's a different person suddenly. It's like there are three Robins.

There's the Robin who returns to Barney every few nights to get her fix. That the primary Robin, who wins every argument.

There's the Robin who's Ted's friend. Who's Marshall and Lily's friend. Maybe who's even Barney's friend. They all trust her.

Then there's a third, even deeper Robin. The Robin who doesn't trust anyone.

Not really.

And that Robin, boy she's getting restless.

95. Smile

Robin doesn't want to change Barney because she's terrified that she might succeed. And if she succeeds then he might want to change her. It's sex and a smile, that's all. And okay, she's picking up that he's hurting, somehow, somewhere in that black ball of goo that he calls a heart. But what can she do? This is all she can give him! It's all she'll ever be able to give a man.

No kids. No marriage. Not even the long term. Who knows if she'll even still be in the States a year from now?

Certainly not her.

18. Trauma

Robin's mind's gone blank. None of this is real. None of this can be happening. There is no Ted. No Lily.

There is no Marshall, tall and strong and stoic and crying silent tears.

There is no policeman, policewoman, doctor, plastic chair, reclining table, pain and bright lights.

There is no pen in her hand, no recording device on the table beside her.

No signature and no witness statement.

There are no consequences if she can just lie here on Lily's bed, the scent of love and warmth and safety in her nostrils.

If she can just forget. Forget everything.

82. Blindfold

Robin isn't comfortable when she can't see. She doesn't know what's coming. When Barney puts something in her mouth or slides something between her legs, it could be a penis, a finger, a banana or even a freakin' chocolate bar.

He's used a hell of a lot of lube. She's a little scared, even though she knows he wouldn't really hurt her. Well, not so that she'd have to go to the ER.

And that isn't really that reassuring.

When he smacks something down between her thighs, the pain/pleasure crashes through her so hard and fast, she swears she's dying.

71. Second Chance

Barney doesn't do anything she expects him to do. She expects him to step up, to give her what she wants, what she needs. She's a little afraid of him.

Robin's more afraid of Barney than she is of any of the others. There are multiple guys, but they become one, generic meta-guy when she tells Barney.

Her only punishment is the burn on her arm and he goes out of town for a few days. Hot and cold, that's them, defined. Highs and lows.

When Barney gets back, he's different. Everything's different.

And now she also scared of herself.

61. Obsession

After Barney tells Robin that he loves her, she can't stop thinking about him. And, naturally, he freaks out and chases more bimbos and tells Robin that it's her who's scared of giving this a chance.

Robin doesn't see what she sees in Barney.

Okay, he's hot. He's her masturbatory fantasy.

He's easygoing. Although she thinks about him every hour of every day right now.

He's clearly into her.

She turns up at his apartment at four a.m. and he doesn't throw her out. When she leaves, she steals one of his ties and sleeps with it on her pillow.

38. Face-to-Face

Oh god this is so hot!

They're face to face and yet he refuses to kiss her because she's been smoking and he's on some kind of detox.

She can really look at him, up close, not being distracted by his lips on hers.

His eyes are so expressive. His dick's rammed so far, so hard up inside her, each thrust is brutal, but his eyes are sad, almost lost, as he clings to the edge of orgasm and refuses to fall over with her, even after she screams his name so loud that he's forced to kiss her anyway.

39. Flames

The stack of magazines catch light quickly and the flames lick up from the wastebasket, leaping towards the ceiling. Somewhere in the distance, a smoke alarm goes off.

Of course, Robin feels she should have known. What did she think was going to happen, once the police were involved? Barney's was the only name she could give them, the only name she actually knew.

There's yelling and Ted's pulling her away, grabbing the extinguisher and fighting the fire.

Barney's in jail and she put him there.

The whole apartment can burn for all she cares.

The whole world can burn.

37. Expectations

The man hits her, punches her in the chest and Robin goes down. He barks his name at her because he wants her to say it, and she repeats it dully. She doesn't care what his name is, but his fingers are strong and they leave rose petal marks in her pale flesh.

His dick is small, a lot smaller than Barney's, and he doesn't know what he's doing with it. But she rides him and tilts her hips while he calls her his dirty, dirty whore or some other stupid words.

She doesn't know what she expected. Not this.

57. Mirror

Robin doesn't like to look in the mirror any more. All she sees is damage.

One evening, she's getting dressed at Barney's and she catches him, jaw clenched, face twisted in distress.

"Why don't you just hit me?" She asks.

His pale blue eyes reflect her face like glass. She looks quickly away, because she doesn't think she'll like what she sees in there, if she lingers too long.

"I love you," he chokes, as if he can't get enough air into his lungs.

Then he kicks her out immediately afterwards. It's a reaction to his weakness and to hers.


	6. Chapter 6

PART SIX

13. Dying

Ted visits Barney in jail every week and he can't help but notice the rapid decline in his friend. It isn't as though Barney doesn't have good days. Sometimes Ted arrives and Barney's brimming over with ideas - rules for living in "the joint", new articles for his Bro Code. Sometimes Barney asks about home, about MacLaren's, about the new clients Ted's just managed to attract.

But as the months drag on, the questions fade away, the rules and lists decline and the light dies in Barney's eyes. As his trial draws near, Ted barely recognises his old friend anymore.

22. Vulnerable

"Marshall, stop!"

Lily's voice breaks as Marshall reaches between her legs with one, meaty finger. She doesn't want to let this get to her. She really needs this - the closeness between her and her husband - the trust.

But even though the bonds at her wrists aren't tight and the scarves he's tied her with are as soft as silk, Lily can't help but be freaked out by this, by the association with what Robin told them.

"It's too soon!" She tries to explain, as Marshall unties her. "I'm just not ready. I'm still feeling so.."

Naked? Disturbed?

Vulnerable…

29. Confession

"A guy called for you," Ted said, handing Robin a piece of paper with a scrawled telephone number and a name. "Sounded kinda creepy. I'm guessing it's someone from work? Who is he?"

It was great that she was working again. Ted wasn't trying to be cruel but he needed the money and she needed the routine. They all needed a sense of normality.

"Huh-uh?" Robin said when she looked down at the name. "Uh…"

Ted turned sharply at the strangled noises that she was making.

"He wants to hurt me," she said.

"What?"

"He's hurt me before. Real bad."

63. Picture

Lily was crying, hot, fat tears creeping down her face. Marshall threw himself on to the couch next to her and slid his arm around her. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"Are we awful people?" She asked, swallowing convulsively.

She had a photo album on her lap, showing pictures from Ted's birthday. They had all just jumped across the gap between Ted's apartment building and his neighbour's.

Barney looked so happy.

"I don't know Marshall," Lily said, blowing her nose. "We were just so quick to condemn him!"

Marshall sighed. "I know, baby. I know." Six months on and it still hurt.

85. Forced

Ted comes home early one day. He's barely been with the client for an hour and he's got a terrible, throbbing migraine.

When he opens the door, he can hear banging, shouting… the words "No! No! Stop! Oh my god, please!"

It's Robin.

He pounds his fist on her door. "Robin! Robin? Oh my god are you okay?" He rattles the handle but the door's locked.

Silence.

After a long, long minute, he hears her voice - quiet, almost scared. "It's okay, Ted. It's okay. Was just… watching a movie."

Ten minutes later Barney emerges from her room, looking sheepish.

30. Confusion

"What I don't get," Marshall says, in between long, long chugs on his beer mug. "Is why Robin kept going back to Barney, okay? If he was that much of a monster. If he… raped her…" Marshall always had trouble saying that word. Hell, he had trouble even thinking it. "Why did Robin keep going back?"

Lily shook her head. She was just as drunk, if not more so, than the guys right now. "She was scared. He terrorised her into having sex."

"Robin?" Ted said incredulously.

"It's always the strongest women that men want to degrade." Lily says firmly.

99. Wounded

Barney tries to kill himself three times while on remand in the county jail. Ted only finds out about this through Marshall. There's never any explanation. He just turns up for his visits and he's not allowed to see his friend.

The first time it's pills. Barney swears that he just needed to sleep.

The second time Barney drags a shard of glass across his neck. He's in the hospital block for three weeks and has eleven stitches.

The third time he begs Ted to help him die.

All Ted knows is that he really has to help him live.

25. Anger

Marshall doesn't know when he shifts his focus from Robin to Barney.

The problem for the prosecution, as far as Marshall sees it, is that Robin's statement is so garbled, her evidence so contradictory. But the physical evidence will certainly be enough to tip the emotional balance, get the jurors good and angry.

Shit, seeing the photographs doesn't make Marshall angry, it makes him incandescent with fury.

But something doesn't quite add up. And right now, he needs to detach himself somehow and just try and think things through.

The more he does, the more unsettled this case makes him.

72. Shoulder

It's raining outside and it's miserable inside. Lily's curled up against Marshall, Robin's covered in a blanket and Ted's sitting in the single chair, staring blankly at the movie playing on TV.

Slowly, Robin scootches over and leans against Marshall's shoulder, pulling the blanket up to her nose.

Lily should be okay about it - should be happy that her friend is reaching out. But she has this jolt inside - this violent flame of jealousy and disgust.

She doesn't want this damaged woman touching her husband.

And that's so horrible, so wrong that Lily hates herself a little bit.

74. Silence

"Marshall wants to come and visit you," Ted explains. The silence across the table is deafening. Barney's shackled and Ted has no idea why, doesn't want to know at this stage in the game.

It's one week till the trial.

The whole thing's breaking down. Robin's hysterical at the idea of giving evidence. Her lawyers (well, Marshall) are trying to be supportive but at this rate, it's likely that Robin will be hospitalised.

She's been clinically depressed for months.

"Just answer me, man!" Ted shouts.


	7. Chapter 7

PART SEVEN

78. Trapped

He takes away her power.

(Barney took away her power)

Robin knows that she can't stop him; doesn't try.

(Barney would have stopped)

His fingers tighten around her throat, and she feels numb. It's almost boring, but it's still painful. It's physical but it doesn't connect.

(Every time Barney took her, just took her, wouldn't take no for an answer)

He doesn't stop. Doesn't stop. Oh Christ, she can't breathe.

(Barney sucked all the air out of the room and made her weak)

He doesn't care. She's losing consciousness now. She's losing-

(Barney worshiped her, cared about her)

She's losing.

12. Hurt

"You're too old for me," Robin says, and he knows it's a throw-away comment, knows it's normally something he would easily deflect. Because normally her insults pool like oil on water, never breaking the surface, never absorbed.

But it's far from normal just because he's tired and his Mom's cancer's back, James and Tom are fighting and he's been working 48 hours straight on some contract negotiations and he feels old.

So it hurts.

"What?" He snaps, full of regret and overflowing with everything, with shadows and keeping her secrets.

"Nothing," she says grumpily. Like he can't take a joke.

23. Mercy

Okay, so Marshall knows that it would be really easy to tear Robin's evidence apart right now. Easy… but would it be right?

Ted says, under his breath because Lily's only in the bedroom. "You don't think Barney's been punished enough for what he did? He's dying in there. He maybe dead already, no matter what happens."

A good lawyer could easily discredit Robin right now. But a bruised and battered girl in the witness stand…?

"Oh man, you should see Barney. If only you could see him…" Ted pleads.

Marshall knows that he's better than good. He's freakin' amazing.

36. Drowning

They say that when you're drowning, you go down three times before you die. And before you do, presumably you get the chance to yell out for help.

Robin certainly tried.

One: "If we do this, Barney, I'd be compromising everything of myself! It'll be like Ted moving to New Jersey for Stella."

Two: "You're too old for me!"

Three: "If you won't, I'll find someone who will!"

Trouble is, when you're drowning, you need someone who's willing to dive in and rescue you, not push your head under the water and hold you there.

Eventually, they went down together.

54. Light

When Ted realises what has really been going on with Robin, when he truly sees the light and understands what is still going on, it horrifies him. He begs her to stop seeing these guys.

The implications for Barney's trial take longer to comprehend.

In fact, it's not until Ted's sitting with Marshall and Lily that he realises.

"Oh my god…" Is all he can say.

He doesn't want Marshall and Lily to hate Robin. He knows that the situation is hopelessly complicated. But he does know that it isn't simple as "Barney's the villain, Robin's the victim" any more.

70. No

"No!" Robin screams, in her mind.

She's said the word so many time that it's lost all meaning. They need to invent a new word for protest, one that doesn't turn him on quite so much.

Robin never wanted it to be Barney feeding her addiction - her best friend. Why did it have to be him who brought this out in her?

Why did he it have to be him who was the first man to love her for what she is, for everything she is?

Why does he see her change in front of his eyes and just… let her?

87. Exposed

Simple things like car horns honking and sirens wailing and people, people, people - they all scare him. After months incarcerated within the same, plain-white four walls, even fresh air scares Barney.

His old apartment feels too big, too cavernous, for him to cope with. He spends every waking hour in abject terror. He doesn't sleep. He's afraid of a revenge attack.

He can't function any more in the real world.

Then one day the unthinkable happens. Marshall comes to visit.

"Barney, dude, we need to talk," the big guys says, swallowing convulsively. He looks as nervous as Barney feels.

64. Pillow

The man lets Robin regain consciousness five times. At least, she thinks it's five. By now, she's finding it hard to keep count. Her tongue is swollen and her vision is blurred-red, fragmented.

Finally, he presses a pillow over her face. Up close, she can see every expensive thread on its surface, smell the expensive detergent as the soft material covers her mouth and nose.

In the part of Robin's brain that's disassociated from this, she wonders: Why is it always the wealthy guys who are into this? She'd have thought they'd have more to lose.

Is it the thrill?

53. Dust

They go to LA for a couple of days. Robin's got an assignment, reporting on a story for her show. Barney goes with her, making up a tissue-thin lie about a business meeting. It's bright and abrasive and the two New Yorkers feel out of place in the sunshine city.

On a whim, she fucks him in an open-top car but the dust gets in her lungs and she coughs all over him. They decide the darkness of NYC suits them better. They need a veil of shadow to hide them and a wall of neon to light their way.

51. Innocent

Barney's not innocent.

Ted knows that his friend is about as far from innocent as it's possible to get.

But seeing him now in court, wearing a suit again, his hair trimmed, his cheeks freshly shaved, he looks as innocent as a new-born babe.

So when the judge says the words "Not guilty," Ted doesn't feel the same jolt that he knows Lily does, sitting beside him.

Robin never wanted this in the first place. Robin doesn't even know what's going on! Robin's in a hospital in Brooklyn right now.

Ted guesses that, at least today, justice has been served.


	8. Chapter 8

PART EIGHT

7. Cheater

Barney's no cheater. Despite everything he's done, despite everything people think of him, he's never actually cheated on a woman as such.

As such.

He's a serial womanizer. He flits from chick to chick, breaking heart after heart, but in the moment of victory, on consummation, of coming together between man and woman, he is hers and hers alone.

He doesn't understand the mentality that would invest in a relationship, demand monogamy and then screw around.

Which is kind of ironic.

When Robin cheats on him he just can't process it; hasn't got the smarts. He's out of his depth.

20. Funeral

Ted doesn't make Barney suit up. He's happy for his friend to call the shots right now. It's not like things aren't tough enough for the poor guy.

There are a hell of a lot of people at the church when they arrive. He nods at Carl, throws a wintry smile at Marshall and Lily and leads Barney over to the pew at the back.

Ted wonders briefly if anyone will talk to them.

Does everyone think this is weird, them turning up like this?

Trouble is, Ted feels like Barney's carer right now. It would be weirder not to.

88. Blade

In jail, it's easier in the daylight, when he's rational, for Barney to think things through and plan and plan and plan how to do this.

At night, when the threats come, when the whispered taunts are tossed around like softballs on a summer evening, then panic sets in.

One night, he's looking in the mirror, wondering when his own face became a death-mask, when he realised that glass makes as good a blade as anything.

He smashes the mirror with his fist and takes one shard, slashing his own throat. Thick red gouts of blood bubble over his fingers.

60. Negotiate

Marshall goes to visit one of the clerks at Barney's attorney's office. It's absolutely against protocol, it's against everything he stands for, it's even against his own moral code. But somehow, Marshall knows, this is the right thing to do.

The man plays hardball. It's obvious that he doesn't trust Marshall and why in the hell should he? Marshall Eriksen's been helping the other side, helping the DA, helping Robin.

It's really, really hard to convince the dude that he's on the level.

Why would he be helping a violent rapist?

Lately, Marshall is constantly asking himself the same question.

26. Breathe

The voice tells her to breathe. This voice orders her to breathe. Robin can feel lips pressed against hers, air being forced into her lungs, the shaking voice talking and talking and talking.

Barney just never stops talking.

When she opens her eyes Robin marvels at how different he looks. He's pale and oh so thin. The other guy, the one who was fucking her (killing her) seconds before, is rolling about on the floor clutching his face, blood pouring from his nose.

"I just saved your life," Barney says.

His tears fall, droplets of salt-pain, on to her face.

67. Possessive

Barney wonders who she's with.

In the sleepless hours that he spends, still, limbs locked in rigor-mortis stiffness, eyes wide and full of the fine grit of the sandman, Barney tortures himself with images of Robin, having sex with other guys.

Sometimes it sends a spike of anger through his gut that hurts like a bastard, like acid reflux. Sometimes the rage tastes coppery, like blood.

Sometimes it sends him into a pit of despair.

But the one thing it absolutely can't do is make any difference to how he treats her. Robin must never know how this hurts him.

92. Monster

He's a monster clad in Egyptian cotton, in hand-stitched wool and fine silk.

Robin knows this about Barney. All those things he stoops too, fake proposals, dead wives, evil twins, all of these things make him more desirable in her eyes, not less. And okay, his blue eyes and his smile and his charm can make up for everything. But it's a lesser know fact that the "everything" that he has to make up for makes him more appealing to her.

She'll never act on it, she tells herself, until he breaks the rules and tells her he loves her.

5. Hatred

Lily wants to hurt Barney. She wants to see him strung up by his genitals and left out in the street to die a slow and painful death. She wants to run a pair of scissors across his belly, pull out his intestines and let Robin's five dogs devour them while Barney watches. She wants every woman that he's ever wronged to have a turn with him, slicing into his cock and balls piece by piece until they take away everything that makes him a man.

Barney raped her best friend. Now Lily wants her pound of flesh plus bonuses.

73. Shower

The water flows. Droplets ricochet from the tiles and spatter across Barney's calves. Both of his hands are clamped over his own mouth and his eyes are tightly shut.

Oh god oh god oh god.

He's just been violently sick. He threw up in the trash behind MacLaren's, retching until there was nothing left in his belly.

All those sexual harassment charges.

All those angry, dubious conquests.

All those women who didn't want-

No means no.

It was so important to him to overcome-

Robin said no.

The water drums against his skill, beats out a rhythm. One word.

Rapist.

56. Lost

When Ted opens the door to the apartment, the last thing he expects is Barney, carrying Robin bodily through the door.

"She's hurt," Barney says, frantically. "She was lost. I found her."

Robin has been missing for three days.

How in the hell had Barney done it? Barely able to function by himself since his time in Jail, the guy had managed to track down and rescue his ex-

Girlfriend? Could you even call Robin Barney's girlfriend after everything that had happened?

Ted shook his head. "Hospital?"

Barney just looked at him. Robin wasn't the only one who'd been lost


	9. Chapter 9

PART NINE

65. Blackmail

Ted is at the end of his tether.

"Robin, you're gonna eat something or I'm not gonna buy you any more cigarettes!"

She looks at him with large, angry eyes. He has no idea why she'll smoke at every opportunity - on the roof, the fire-escape, out of the window - but she just will not eat.

"I'll eat when you tell me where Barney is."

It's the first time Robin's mentioned Barney since that night. Since the cops. Since her breakdown.

The answer dies in his throat. It hurts too much, in fact, it's killing him. "Fine. Don't eat."

32. Damaged

It wasn't as though Robin doesn't try and break out of this. When she realises what's happening, when she sees the bruises Barney's made the next morning, she's quite rightly terrified.

And Barney calls her up at some ungodly hour (probably about four p.m., it's her night-time) and he practically breaks down in tears over her cell phone. It's all about regrets and forgiveness.

Then suddenly it isn't. Suddenly, he stops apologising.

And he tells her to meet him again that night. No, he orders her.

He scares the crap out of her sometimes. But she just can't resist him.

80. Unfair

It's surprisingly easy for Barney to walk back into his old job.

With the kind of dubious crap that GNB employees normally pull, he suspects that being acquitted of rape is a drop in the ocean for these guys.

The dude who's had his job for months (and yes, he does have a real job. If someone didn't do it, the place would go down the toilet quicker than you can say hostile take-over) and doing it well, that dude is out of the door the moment Barney walks back in.

But who ever said life was fair? Not him.

89. Chained

Robin laughs. Robin giggles. Robin covers her mouth and turns away. "Chains?" She says finally, when she manages to her herself under control. "Really, Barney? Actual chains? You took me literally?"

"I literally took you literally," Barney mumbles.

Robin bursts out in fresh peals of laughter.

"So you don't find whips and chains sexy after all?" He asks her.

She gives him a funny look. "Whips?"

He leers. "Hey-oh! That's the reaction I was looking for!" He holds out his fist. "Bump it or I'll give you tiger stripes."

She raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, or I WON'T!"

She bumps him.

62. Our Secret

"You can't tell Lily!" Ted told Marshall. Stupid Ted. As if that it were possible to keep anything from his wife for more than a day! Marshall can't keep secrets from anyone, especially a secret this big.

Lily doesn't get it of course. She doesn't get how Barney could have "walked away, Scott free". She thinks that the defense case was just a bunch of lies. Lily can't believe her friend is that fucked up.

It's horrible, of course. Robin's shields were made of toughened glass. They lasted a long time but once they broke she went into catastrophic meltdown.

96. Glare

"Will you just stop it, then?" Barney demands.

"Stop what?" Robin asks, innocently enough.

"Glaring!" Barney takes a deep breath. "That 'red-headed whore', as you so delicately put it, is my cousin Stacey!"

"Barney, ew!" Robin wrinkles her nose.

"I am not sleeping with her! Jesus, that would be gross!"

"Not as gross as what you did to me last night."

He pauses a beat. "Okay, you win."

She gives him a funny look, like she almost expects him to argue as much as she expected him to cheat on her. She looks almost disappointed he doesn't. On both counts.

6. Heartbreak

Barney sits on the sunlit grass, his back against the stone tablet.

"And so, today this chick comes into MacLaren's and she's, I dunno? Twenty-one? Twenty-two? And this news item comes on - some suicidal guy. I bet her $20 he'd jump. Course, when he did, I came clean - s'a repeat… already seen it on the five o'clock. Turns out… she had too! Why did she bet? Cos she didn't think he'd do it twice!"

There are tears in his eyes when he says "I swear, every year they get dumber" and he gently pats the stone behind him.

66. Abuse

"That's so totally not abuse! Abuse refers to the use or treatment of something (a person, item, substance, concept, idea or vocabulary) that is harmful. It can be classed by the target of abuse or the type of abuse." Barney says all of this without even taking a breath. In fact, Robin can practically hear the parentheticals in his voice.

She grins. "You're just saying that to turn me on!"

"Nope."

Ted frowns at the both of them. "Is that from wikipedia?" he asks.

Barney stutters and hurriedly pockets his phone while Robin gives Ted a well deserved high five.

11. Broken

This time, Ted is furious. "Guys, just…. How in the hell did you do it? I mean, it's a drafting table? You don't just break a drafting table? I mean, what were you even doing?"

Robin glances at Barney, who's looking stupidly, ridiculously and obviously guilty.

"Dancing!" Robin blurts.

"Having sex!" Barney's words overlap hers.

Robin throws up her hands, her voice hard-edged with frustration. "How exactly is having sex better than dancing?"

Ted rolls his eyes. "Just please, one of you tell me the truth."

Of course, they have to lie about why Robin has splinters in her ass.

46. Hard

It's a long time before Lily can build up the courage to talk to him again. By now, Barney's just so, so thin. She'd never have called him gangly before, but that's exactly the right word to describe him. He looks a little bit like a preying mantis, and that analogy doesn't exactly make this any easier.

He stares at her. Not expectantly - at least he doesn't look like he deserves anything from her. But, Jesus, Marshall's right.

He doesn't look like a rapist.

Even though he totally is.

"I'm sorry," she splutters. Two words, so hard to say.


	10. Chapter 10

PART TEN

28. Cold

Ted volunteers to identify her body. Surprisingly, to him, her Dad flies down and insists that she be taken back to Canada. Katie comes too, weeping and making things ten times harder.

"Her skin is so cold!" Robin's sister sobs.

Ted wants to snap at her. "What did you expect, you stupid little girl? She's dead!"

But he can't do it. Can't be mean. Even though he's had every reason this year to act up, to break out, to scream, to just let fly and finally express his frustration at the world…

He can't do it. He's the good guy.

84. Hit

All Robin wants to do is get away from Barney because everything's getting way too intense and weird.

But when he goes out of town for a few days on business, she watches her email and her cell phone like a hawk, waiting for the contact from him that never comes. When he returns home, Robin decides that she's never going to sleep with him again. She's absolutely made up her mind… right up until he sends her the following text:

"Hey, wanna see me throw a punch at a guy? Ten minutes, MacLaren's."

Damn him. That's practically seducing her.

86. Naked

Two guys corner Barney in the showers.

It's almost too stereotypical to be true. He almost blurts out "where's the soap?" before one of them slams him into the wall. He knows exactly what they want from him.

In the end, he gets off lightly, with only a black eye. He's not stupid and he's not weak and he has no intention of becoming a full-time cock-sucker.

The decision to take the pills is a purely rational choice: Escape now, or live out a long, painful life in prison.

But he wakes up, blaming himself for getting the dosage wrong.

90. Gag

"Stop talking," Robin says, pulling at the end of his tie so that it pools into her open hand.

Barney ignores her so she pushes him back on to the bed, pinning his wrists beside his shoulders.

Still he keeps on yakking.

"Right…" Robin sighs, shoving the tie into his open mouth and pulling at his zipper. "Do your "Oh" face, buddy." He obliges when she takes hold of his dick and pumps it.

She has a brief fantasy of doing this whenever he's being annoying - in MacLaren's, up in her apartment, in front of the others.

She smiles.

94. Cruel

When Robin dies, both Lily and Marshall feel weirdly numb. They tell themselves: It's not like they ever visualised her on their Front Porch. They didn't expect her to grow old gracefully.

They both feel horribly guilty about this.

At the funeral, Lily overhears Katie round on Barney, her words full of bile and spite. "So, you gonna kill yourself now?" The grieving girl snarls. It seems unnecessarily cruel.

It suddenly brings everything home to them. They realise Barney was never on their Front Porch either.

Lily wonders why she even wanted the stupid Front Porch in the first place.

75. Price

Barney can see the outline of her nipple piercing, making the fabric bunch a tiny bit beneath the sheet that covers her body.

He can see the shadow of a bruise on her pale cheek where some guy's marked her.

He can see the sharpness of her collarbones where's she's lost weight. Just like him.

She looks like she's sleeping.

She's not sleeping.

It should be so easy to follow her. He reaches up and touches the scar on his neck, the mark of failure.

Even in death, Robin Scherbatsky still manages to be way more awesome than he is.

34. Dark

Robin likes dark chocolate.

Lily doesn't get it. She and Barney like the smooth, creamy texture of milk chocolate. Barney pulls a face at Robin across the table and says that dark chocolate is way too bitter.

Lily tends to agree with him.

Robin just rolls her eyes and smirks.

Suddenly, there's an undercurrent that Lily picks up on, some invisible showdown going on between Barney and Robin. Lily's experienced this sort of thing enough in her kindergarten class to know when to intervene. "Now kids, play nicely," she says sharply.

Barney, at least, has the sense to back down.

33. Dangerous

Barney looks at Robin over the top of his tumbler, the ice cubs clinking in the bottom of the glass. Her eyes follow them, hypnotised.

"Penny for your thoughts, Scherbatsky?" He says, softly.

"How dare you devalue my thoughts!"

He smirks. "Come on, spill."

She leans forward, conspiratorially, whispering into his ear. "I was thinking about what it would be like to get my nipples pierced."

He groans. Her fingers creep along his thigh.

"And I want you to do it," she says.

Something stirs inside him, uncoils and beats its wings. Something Barney didn't even know existed until now.

45. Happiness

"I'm in love with you," Barney says, defeated, bowing his head. "You know that."

Robin lifts his chin. "Hey… hey…" She looks… so different, after all these months. She looks almost as though she's going to say it back.

He feels like crying but she captures his mouth and kisses him, long and hard. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He asks.

This isn't them. They never talk about the important stuff.

"Yes," she says. "Yes."

They make love.

At least that's what he'd call it if he were any other guy and she were any other girl.


End file.
